Why are chocolate bars invariably sealed in foil or plastic inside a cardboard box or paper sleeve? Practicality, I suppose, alongside tradition and efficiencies, perhaps? As consumers, we're conditioned to expect chocolate bars to come in rectangular shapes sheathed in paper.
I couldn't help but pick up this pouch by Pump Street Chocolate when I spotted it on the shelf of London's Harvey Nichols. It's a very tactile resealable package that protects a 66% craft chocolate bar.
It combines dark chocolate and sourdough bread, two products Pump Street is famous for producing in their quaint Suffolk village location.
Packaging
It was undeniable that this packaging was highly distinctive. It felt pleasing to touch and to hold.
A large Pump Street Chocolate logo above a sticker with details of this particular batch (all Pump Street chocolate uses the same packaging aside from the sticker).
Part of the Bakery series, my award-winning 66% bar was made with cacao from the Hacienda Limon farm on the Guantupi River in Ecuador. You read that correctly - this bar was crafted using beans from a single farm, affording it full traceability from plant to bar, with the added benefit of a truly distinctive flavour profile.
A sticker with the batch number and 'best before' date sealed the package, just above the push-close resealable seal.
The rear of the package included some background information on the Pump Street brand, together with their production method. A sticker beneath this lists the ingredients and nutritional information of this single estate bar in English and German.
Pump Street 66% Sourdough & Sea Salt Chocolate ingredients:
Cocoa beans, cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, breadcrumbs (wheat flour, natural sourdough starter, sea salt), sea salt. Minimum 66% cocoa.
This 70g bar comes in at 349kcal and comprises of 27.5% sugars.
Pump Street 66% Sourdough & Sea Salt Chocolate Review
Inside my pouch sat a dark bar of chocolate oozing a gorgeous sheen. A dent mark in one piece along with minor scuff marks detracted from what was otherwise a beautiful piece of workmanship.
This bar of chocolate was produced in a quaint building on, yes, you guessed it, Pump Street, in the chocolate box village of Orford, Suffolk. It blends Pump Street's expertise at craft chocolate with their expertise at producing fabulous baked goods.
A traditional chocolate bar mould was used to create 16 portions of chocolate, and the clean and crisp snap helped make dividing them up this way a doddle.
The initial aroma was filled with creamy, rich notes, with very slight hints of caramel and toffee, malt, and almond peeping through.
Biting into the chocolate, I was struck by the bountiful supply of crunchy sourdough breadcrumbs blended into the recipe. These incredibly fine malty crumbs added a feuilletine-style crunch to the chocolate, which played marvellously well against the rich, creamy 66% dark Ecuadorian chocolate.
The chocolate exuded all the same wonderful characteristics I detected in the aroma. In the background, a subtle bitterness sat at the very edge, kept at bay by the almost caramel-like sweetness.
A subtle saltiness fed into the flavour towards the end, with the granules of sea salt indistinguishable from the breadcrumb flakes. This savoury edge helped round the overall flavour and kept the sweetness in this bar at bay.
The aftertaste was dominated by the flavour of the sourdough bread, with the creamy cocoa notes sitting just beneath that.
Overall, this was a thoroughly wonderful discovery and I loved the playfulness of blending artisan bread with artisan chocolate. The crunchy sourdough breadcrumbs added a very pleasing crunch and flavour dimension that worked beautifully set against the backdrop of the single plantation 66% Ecuadorian chocolate. The sea salt at the end helped wrap up the flavour profile with a bow.
Pump Street 66% Sourdough & Sea Salt Chocolate is available to buy direct (£6.25), on Amazon here°, and at Chocolate Trading Co° (£6.20).
Stay tuned as I hope to get my paws on the 40% Brown Bread, 55% Eccles Cakes, and 70% Panettone, and the 60% Rye Crumb bars soon. I also hope to see the 58% Hot Cross Buns bar become available again soon!
Pump Street 66% Sourdough & Sea Salt Chocolate Review
RRP: £6.25 | Pump Street Chocolate | Shop now
A rich flavourful chocolate provides the perfect backup for crunchy flecks of nutty sourdough breadcrumbs, enhanced by the sparing addition of sea salt. It's a wonderful blend that is simply delicious.
Have you tried any of the bakery series by Pump Street Chocolate? Do you have a favourite? Let me know in the comments below.
